Computer glitch may be to blame for lights issues

A COMPUTER glitch has been suggested as a possible reason traffic lights were out of sync at the intersection in Burnie where police attended two car crashes in two days.

A COMPUTER glitch has been suggested as a possible reason traffic lights were out of sync at the intersection in Burnie where police attended two car crashes in two days.

THE SPOT: Warning signs at the scene of two accidents at the intersection of Mount Street and the Bass Highway at the weekend. Picture: Grant Wells.

A new computer controller was installed at the west-bound Bass Highway and Mount Street intersection on Friday, replacing the existing computer.

The general manager of Transport Infrastructure Services at the Department of Energy, Infrastructure and Resources, Shane Gregory, said it was possible the work had changed the synchronisation.

``All the logs indicate that everything was fine, but it is possible the central computer did not take over the controller [at the intersection] for the synchronisation,'' Mr Gregory said.

He said the work would not have affected the length of time the green light was visible.

``If we are going to change the amount of green [time] . . . or put in a turning light, we let the community know,'' he said.

``I guess the key is we didn't set out to make a change here.''

DIER viewed the two sets of traffic lights on Mount Street - the east-bound and west-bound Bass Highway - as two separate intersections, even though they are less then 50 metres apart.

Mr Gregory said it was not considered one large intersection as many in the community did.

``People should always read the lights and understand that they don't always synchronise,'' Mr Gregory said.

Earlier yesterday afternoon a spokesperson for DIER said traffic lights at the crash intersection did not malfunction.

The spokesperson said the lights were working safely and correctly when the crash occurred.

However, hundreds of people on The Advocate 's Facebook page said the lights at the intersection had been out of sync since they saw work being done there at the end of last week.

Police said on Sunday they believed a change in traffic light sequence was a contributing factor in the smash that caused critical head injuries to one woman, who was in the Royal Hobart Hospital yesterday.

Despite this, when asked if DIER's contractors intended to change the light sequences, they did not refer to a change in light sequences. They referred to the way lights change from red, to green to amber, but not the synchronisation of lights.

DIER said there had been no work done at the traffic lights involved in the crashes.

The department responded to The Advocate 's initial questions at 4.40pm yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon, synchronisation of the east-bound and west-bound Bass Highway lights in Mount Street was back to how it was before work was undertaken at the intersection last week.